Liveworld Corona Social Media Recommendations

1. Recommendations for
Pharma Social Media
Activities During the
Coronavirus Crisis
A Step-By-Step Best Practices Guide

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Pharma Coronavirus POV Confidential
LiveWorld
June 5, 2015
The Coronavirus National Emergency
The United States Government has now declared a national emergency
over the Coronavirus pandemic. People’s lives are being disrupted and
we can expect things will only get more serious in the weeks to come.
Schools are closing, events are being cancelled, and quarantines are
taking effect. The business impact is already significant as the stock
market has headed into a bear mode, workers are staying home, and
supply chains are badly disrupted. In such an environment, how should
pharma marketers respond? In this white paper we provide
recommendations about how pharma companies should handle their
social media activity; what they should continue, start, and stop doing;
and what other actions to consider.
Guidance for Pharma Social Media
Programs
Understanding the Value of Healthcare Communities
Patients seek social media communities to support them when they have
recurring healthcare conditions. They are looking for:
• Connection with and support from others with the same health
condition. This often includes guidance from others who have been
diagnosed longer or who have tried different treatments.
• A replacement or supplemental support network when their personal
networks fatigue. Often with chronic health conditions, the support
from a patient’s friends and family can decline. Patients may turn to
online communities to add a new support system.
• Collaboration when there is new information or a change in the
treatment of their condition. Often, we see patients with a lower level
of medical knowledge use the insights and translations from the
community to better understand these changes.
During the Coronavirus we have seen patients returning to their
healthcare communities to connect with their peers, share their general
fears, and specifically discuss if their condition or treatment makes them
higher risk for contraction of the virus or more likely to have a more severe

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Pharma Coronavirus POV Confidential
LiveWorld
June 5, 2015
case. Patients turn to social media pages and groups for these topics in
order to avoid alarming their families, or because healthcare resources
are less widely available, and their fear is very high. In general, we are
seeing a surge in social media activity, which we expect will continue to
rise.
Should we Stop all Content? No.
Many of our Pharma social media pages serve as the healthcare
communities our patients need during these challenging times. Because
of their high value to patients, we do not recommend stopping all content
in these communities. A complete stop could have negative
consequences for patients and the brand.
We do recommend you stop content that directly promotes or sells your
product.
Evaluate Everything
It is critically important that all groups within a Pharma company evaluate
their content and make decisions about what should continue. Here are
some general guidelines for what content each type of social media
program should and shouldn’t publish:
Branded Pharma Product Social Media Pages/Communities
Product pages often become the treatment communities for their
conditions. With this in mind, we recommend that you CONTINUE the
following types of content:
• Content focused on how to afford your medications: As this crisis
evolves the number of people who have new concerns about
affording their medications will increase. It is a great help to them to
showcase the programs you have in place to assist.
• Content about maintaining your medication schedule: With the
disruption in routines we anticipate with the spreading of the virus, we
also anticipate disruptions in medication routines. This leaves more
opportunity for patients to miss critical doses.
• Content focused on how to correctly take your medication: Similar
concerns about changing routines can alter how a patient takes their
medication (e.g., with water only). Reminders of these limitations are
still important to share.

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Pharma Coronavirus POV Confidential
LiveWorld
June 5, 2015
• Content that shows condition understanding or support for the
patients: As the fear grows, it is valuable for patients to know others
understand their specific fears, and to take comfort in the voices of
many. Content that acknowledges or prompts this support is great.
• Content about how to receive your medications: If patients’
medication is delivered from a specialty pharmacy, or has an alternate
delivery method, it is important to continue to communicate about
delivery. It is also helpful to communicate about how to change
delivery preferences, as we see some families consolidating and
people’s locations changing.
We recommend you STOP the following types of content:
• Content focused on selecting your product as their treatment choice:
This can include content about product benefits, patient treatment
stories, clinical trial data, product benefit information, etc. With the
current virus outbreak, patients are not seeing HCPs for general
checkups or medication change discussions. Such messages can
come across as inappropriate and can make the company seem
greedy or disconnected from the crisis.
• Content focused on condition diagnosis: This includes symptom
content, lifestyle content, doctor discussion guides, patient diagnosis
stories, etc. While this content is generally very valuable, most patients
are more concerned with the immediate healthcare issues than with
long term conditions. Paired with the inability to consult with a doctor,
diagnostic messages are less relevant during the crisis.
• Content that depicts activities that are currently not recommended: In
addition to the subject of your content, we also suggest you screen its
images to ensure they are appropriate during the crisis. For example,
you should avoid images that include large group gatherings, people
on vacations, kids in school, etc.
• Content that is overly happy or humorous: We recommend extreme
caution with content that is overly happy or humorous. While there is a
chance this content would lighten a heavy-hearted mood, it can just
as easily seem tone deaf.
• Content that directs patients to speak with their doctors: Given the
limitations of the healthcare community during the virus, be cautious
about content that recommends the patient go talk to their doctor.

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Pharma Coronavirus POV Confidential
LiveWorld
June 5, 2015
Unbranded Pharma Condition Pages/ Communities
Unbranded healthcare communities are absolutely essential during these
times. We recommend you CONTINUE the following types of content:
• Content that shows condition understanding or patient support: As the
fear grows, it is valuable for patients to know others understand their
specific fears, and to take comfort in the voices of many.
• Content about maintaining your medication schedule: With the
disruption in routines we anticipate with the spreading of the virus, we
also anticipate disruptions in medication routines. This leaves more
opportunity for patients to miss critical doses.
• Content about wellness and overall condition: In times of high fear and
disruption, people may abandon their exercise, good eating habits,
and other health positive lifestyles in favor of comfort foods and too
much TV. Content that encourages healthy choices is very important
for us all.
We recommend you AVOID the following content:
• Content focused on condition diagnosis: This includes symptom
content, doctor discussion guides, patient diagnosis stories, etc. While
this content is generally very valuable, most patients are concerned
with the immediate healthcare issues more than long term conditions.
Paired with the inability to consult with a doctor, diagnostic messages
are less relevant during the crisis.
• Content that depicts activities that are currently not recommended: In
addition to the subject of your content, we also recommend you
screen its images to ensure they are appropriate during the crisis. Avoid
images that include large group gatherings, people on vacations, kids
in school, etc.
• Content that is overly happy or humorous: We recommend extreme
caution with content that is overly happy or humorous. While there is a
chance this content would lighten a heavy-hearted mood, it can just
as easily seem tone deaf.
• Content that directs patients to speak with their doctors: Given the
limitations of the healthcare community during the virus, be cautious
about content that recommends the patient go talk to their doctor.

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Pharma Coronavirus POV Confidential
LiveWorld
June 5, 2015
New Content for Branded and Unbranded Pages
During the virus outbreak and treatment period you can ADD content that
fits the current situation as appropriate. This could be content that
supports or shares information on the condition treatment and the virus, or
even content more reflective of the daily concerns about lifestyle
limitations, such as ideas to entertain the family and stay connected with
extended family and friends.
Corporate Social Media Pages
As a general rule, most corporate content about the company should be
discontinued during this period to avoid appearing insensitive. Here are a
few things that could CONTINUE:
• Virus related content: reassurance of company processes, staffing,
supply; posts that share information about the virus and intersection
with treatment areas; information on employees impacted.
We DO NOT recommend these:
• Company earnings
• Employee stories, awards, gatherings
• General content
• Recruiting, job postings, etc.
Actions to Help
Large brands should consider joining relief efforts as soon as an event
occurs. Do NOT trade likes or other marketing actions for donations.
Brands can announce a donation to a reputable aid agency or even just
share the NGO so others can also donate to help. (Or do both. For
example, “<Brand> just gave $25K to the American Red Cross for relief
efforts. If you'd like to help out too, please go to http://someurl.com.”)
If your brand is providing direct assistance to hospitals or other groups in
the Coronavirus response with products or with expert staff, we
recommend you tell the story from the perspective of the participants or
the volunteers.

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Pharma Coronavirus POV Confidential
LiveWorld
June 5, 2015
• This framing shares the brand’s efforts without appearing to seek credit.
• The assistance work seems more personal when told from the
perspective of a volunteer.
Moderation & Response Best Practices
While some of the content and promotion might have changed, the
need for moderation and response continues.
Alert your Moderation Team
• Events can bring out the best and the worst in people, and they will
often display both online. With this in mind, we recommend you alert
and clarify to your moderation team what they should be watching
out for.
• Reiterate the community rules about political statements, hate
language, and aggressive posts with both the moderation team and
the public.
• Decide the criteria for hiding comments. We do not recommend you
hide or remove general comments about Coronavirus. Examples of
comments that should be hidden or deleted include content that is
untrue, suggests cures, or promotes conspiracy theories.
Anticipate These Questions
It is important that Pharma companies be prepared for some of the
questions you will likely receive. Here is a list of questions you should
anticipate and prepare responses for:
• Patients asking about product supply and shortage concerns
• Questions about employees who might have contracted the
Coronavirus
• Questions asking if a specific product (drug) or condition makes them
higher risk for acquiring or having a more severe case of the virus.
(Note: We recommend you direct patients to call their HCP to discuss.)

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Pharma Coronavirus POV Confidential
LiveWorld
June 5, 2015
• Patients who ask if they should they stop taking their medication
Best Practices for Response
• LiveWorld recommends that you create a single set of responses that
can be used for common questions asked on any social media page.
• We recommend that during this high support time you are especially
aware of the need for peer discussion. We recommend you respond
only to questions that are directed to you or if you have to correct
misinformation.
• We recommend against hiding or removing general comments about
Coronavirus. This could provoke a negative reaction, including distrust.
Certainly, consider removing information that is inaccurate or
inflammatory.